The present invention relates to a pull-on disposable wearing article such as disposable diaper, disposable training pants or the like.
It is well known to use pull-on wearing articles having a waist-hole and a pair of leg-holes, for example, as disposable diapers, training pants or diaper covers. It is also well known to make such wearing articles using woven or nonwoven fabrics and to attach elastic members in a stretched state to the articles along respective peripheral edges of the waist-hole and the leg-holes so that the articles may be put on a wearer's body with improved fit.
A pull-on disposable diaper disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 1992-166150 (Reference 1) as an example of such a wearing article includes, in addition to elastic members extending along peripheral edges of a waist-hole and leg-holes, elastic members attached in a stretched state to the article so as to extend across an absorbent pad and to make a full circle around the wearer's waist.
A disposable brief disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 1992-289201 (Reference 2) as another example of the foregoing wearing article includes a plurality of elastic members cooperating one with another to describe a loop extending around the wearer's waist.
A disposable diaper disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application (Based On Translated Version) Publication No. 1996-507699 (Reference 3) comprises a chassis having a front waist region, a rear waist region and a crotch region, and a pair of panels attached to the chassis each going half around the waist region and defining a waist-hole's peripheral edge and leg-holes' peripheral edges wherein the panels are elastically contractible in a waist-surrounding direction.
A pull-on disposable wearing article disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 1991-224559 (Reference 4) comprises an elastically stretchable topsheet formed from a nonwoven fabric, an elastically stretchable backsheet formed from a nonwoven fabric and elastic members extending along side edges of a crotch region and long respective upper ends of front and rear waist regions.
In a disposable pants disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 1993-15552 (Reference 5), a front waist region is formed from a transversely stretchable elastic sheet and a rear waist region is formed from a substantially inelastic sheet wherein the front waist region in a contracted state has a transverse dimension smaller than a transverse dimension of the rear waist region.
When a mother intends to put a pull-on diaper on her baby or when a care giver intends to put a pull-on diaper, for example, on a bedridden patient, mother or caregiver, in front of the baby or the bedridden patient, usually inserts both hands into the waist-hole of the diaper and grips transversely opposite side edges with the fingers to broaden the waist-hole. However, when a mother or caregiver intends to pull up the diaper after the wearer's legs have been let through the leg-holes, a peripheral edge of the waist-hole may get stuck on the wearer's buttock, preventing the diaper from being smoothly pulled up.
In the case of the diaper including the elastic member attached in a stretched state to the peripheral edge of the waist-hole, for example, as disclosed in References 1 and 2, portions of the waist-hole's peripheral edge is elastically stretched in the vicinity of portions gripped with the fingers when a mother or caregiver attempts to pull up the diaper getting stuck on the buttock. The peripheral edge of the waist-hole locally stretched in this manner may prevent the diaper from being smoothly pulled up.
In the diaper disclosed in Reference 3, transversely opposite lateral zones of the waist-hole are defined by the elastic panels. In this case also, when a mother or caregiver inserts both hands into the waist-hole of the diaper and grips transversely opposite lateral zones with the fingers to broaden the waist-hole and to pull up the diaper, the panels are elastically stretched in the vicinity of the portions gripped by the fingers, whether the diaper gets stuck on the wearer's buttock or not. Therefore, it may be difficult for a mother or caregiver to pull up the diaper smoothly.
Of the wearing article disposed in Reference 4, the front and rear waist regions are formed by the elastically stretchable top—and backsheets and these waist regions are provided along respective ends with the waist surrounding elastic members, respectively. For this reason, when it is intended to pull up the wearing article with the transversely opposite lateral zones of the waist-hole gripped by the fingers, the front and rear waist regions are stretched in the vicinity of the portions gripped by the fingers, possibly preventing the wearing article from being smoothly pulled up.
Of the disposable pants disclosed in Reference 5, the front waist region is formed from the transversely elastic sheet while the rear waist region is formed from the inelastic sheet and the front waist region has its transverse dimension smaller than the transverse dimension the rear waist region has. However, the elastic member comprising a plurality of elastic threads is attached in a stretched state to the waist-hole so as to make a full circle along the waist-hole. For this reason, when it is intended to pull up the pants by gripping the transversely opposite lateral zones of the waist-hole by the fingers, the lateral zones gripped by the fingers are elastically stretched as the peripheral edge of the waist-hole gets stuck on the wearer's buttock. Consequentially, it may be difficult for a mother or caregiver to pull up the pants smoothly.
All the known wearing articles including diapers are of pull-on and similar one to another in that the waist-hole is provided with the elastic member running a full circle along the peripheral edge thereof and when it is intended to pull up the wearing article, such elastic member may cause the wearing article to be stretched in the vicinity of the portions gripped by the fingers and thereby make it difficult to pull up the wearing article smoothly.